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| How many muskies do you think are presently swimming in LOTW, or a place like lake vermillion. I always think about that. |
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Posts: 2754
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | I'd say: One (1) really, realy big one. All the rest are dink's, and not worth counting!
Do I win?
Have fun!
Al |
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Posts: 437
| I had heard a report/comment made by a MN DNR Fisheries person that Mille Lacs was estimated to have 2000 adult muskies. I know its not the lake(s) you inquired about, but I would imagine that management goals of fish per acre are similar on vermilion.
LOW, completely different story. |
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| Mille lacs is 132,000 acres and there is only 2000 muskies? That would be hard to believe and a shame if its true. |
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Posts: 69
| Captain - 8/22/2013 9:39 AM
I had heard a report/comment made by a MN DNR Fisheries person that Mille Lacs was estimated to have 2000 adult muskies. I know its not the lake(s) you inquired about, but I would imagine that management goals of fish per acre are similar on vermilion.
LOW, completely different story.
I have also heard roughly 2000-2500 adults…. |
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Posts: 437
| 2000 adult muskies. A shame? I dont know why you would say that. Some of the biggest fish every year come from ML. Whatever the current number is, 2000, 20,000? if it were higher I really doubt it would be what it is right now.
I will have to figure out where I got that from. I believe it was a Ron Schara show where they were doing surveys in the Spring. |
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| The reason I said a shame, is I would think there would be many more than 2000. The old nomenclature says good musky water have about a fish per acre. I guess yea mill lacs produces some big girls, but why so few. Thats only 1 adult for every 66 acres. Eeeek. I guess what would you consider an adult? Over 10 years old? |
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Posts: 4343
Location: Smith Creek | 1 adult per 10 acres is the goal for most class A WI lakes.
.5 per acre and they start dropping the size limits. |
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Posts: 437
| Dont get hung up on the number "2000". Pay more attention to the "adult". IDK what they exactly consider an "adult" fish, over 30"? IDK.
It is entirely possible I misheard how it was referenced, but I do recall the number 2000. Perhaps it was 2000 fish over 50 or something. It was a few years ago that I heard it.
I did find this bit of information though: "Between 1989 and 1992, we stocked 27,000 muskies,'' Jones said, describing the DNR's effort to kick-start the program in Mille Lacs. "That's a lot of fish that are as big as they're going to get. That's why there's so many big fish in Mille Lacs right now.''"
The DNR now stocks just 3,000 muskie fingerlings every other year in Mille Lacs. No reference to an estimate of current numbers though, just the info on the stocking numbers. |
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| I believe 40" and up are considered adult. |
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Posts: 371
Location: Dixon, IL | I remember that Wis DNR said that .5 adult musky per acre in Wisconsin is good musky lake! I also remember that Al Lindner in an old In Fisherman magazine said that if 100 musky or 100 walleye stocked in 100 acre lake then I would fish for musky because that's one per acre is great and not too good for walleye! I think stock one 12 inch musky or ten 6 to 8 inch walleye per acre is good for many lakes. Few years ago I caught few muskies and some followers in northern Wisconsin and found out that lake is low adult per acre! I think good musky angler should have no problem to find them. Follower might help to know the area. |
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Posts: 9
| LOTW has so many fish if you took them all out the lake would be 20ft shallower. More fish are caught on LOTW in a day than Mille lacs sees in a year. Mille lacs sucks LOTW rules |
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Posts: 785
| Exactly 171,378 muskies in LOTW give or take 200,000 or so. 
The lake is loaded but there's really no way to get an accurate read on total numbers considering it's vastness and how much the lake changes from section to section. A density survey done in Sab Bay would not agree with one in Whitefish Bay or Big Traverse Bay. I'm sure it's a fairly large number though for a lake at a million acres.
Edited by musky-skunk 8/29/2013 8:26 AM
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Posts: 581
| From what I've read and think I understand:
Muskie lakes with 0.5 to 1.0+ adult fish ("adult" meaning a fish that reached age of sexual maturity...for which size/age can vary between strains and also lake-to-lake) per acre are generally classified as "action waters" and don't kick out many trophy-sized fish unless there is very abundant forage. A moderate, desirable abundance (desirable meaning action + quality-sized fish) for most lakes would be ~0.3/acre, but again, that depends upon what the lake has for available forage. True trophy lakes, such as Mille Lacs, are usually well below that for overall density and so, the 2,000-2,500 number isn't terribly surprising. (Although I'd think that those are pretty conservative numbers, considering that 2,500 adult fish in a 132,000 acre lake is a density of only 0.02/acre, which does seem to be quite low).
If I had to venture a guess on LOTW, I'd think that the meso portions of the lake (NW Angle/Sabaskong) would have an abundance somewhere in the range of 0.2 to perhaps 0.3/acre. If you could figure out the acreage of those areas, you could do the math and get a (very) rough guesstimate for total numbers in those areas. But Whitefish Bay, Clearwater, Bigstone, Kenora areas, etc., are probably lower density by a fairly significant number. Much, much lower in the Big Traverse. But anyways, that's all really just guesswork. |
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| I have heard that there are about 1400 adult Muskies in Tonka. But what is considered a adult im not sure of. I heard that they want 1 adult per 10 acres... Sorry not LOW or Vermillion but what I have heard. |
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| Id say a LOT of muskies in LOTW. Considering ive had 70+ follow days (between 2 boats) in a very, very small portion of the lake. |
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Posts: 785
| A quick thought on Mille Lacs. Two thousand fish in a 132,000 acre lake (0.02 fish per acre) still sounds low but isn't as surprising when you consider it's roughly 90% or more open water. When fish do choose to congregate on structure spots are relatively small and isolated compared to the whole of the lake. Take that same 0.02 fish per acre and put them in a more structurally diverse lake like a Vermillion or LOTW and now they will seem much more difficult to locate. |
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| Most lakes are managed with a goal of 0.25 to 0.33 adults per acre. Large lakes will of course have lower numbers, especially those that have large structure-less expanses. |
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